Footy academy nets donation

John A. MacInnes

An expanding football academy has been boosted by a £1,000 donation from a West of Scotland builder.

Arthurlie Junior Football Academy – which is based at Dunterlie Park in Barrhead – has received the four-figure cheque from Persimmon Homes West Scotland.

The donation comes as part of the building company’s Community Champions project, which has seen over £1 million being given to local groups and charities since it launched in 2015.

Arthurlie Junior Youth Academy was formed in 2014 with just 16 players from the Barrhead and Paisley areas. Since then the academy has expanded with over 250 youngsters now being coached and playing football in the junior leagues.

Greig McIlravey, chairman at the academy, said: “This generous donation is invaluable to the academy. We have grown rapidly and are in desperate need of new kit and equipment and can’t thank Persimmon enough for making us one of its Community Champions.

“The money will also be used to pay for training courses for our coaches to ensure that we can cope with the increased number of teams we now have.”

Greig says that the Arthurlie name has had a very positive impact on the popularity of the academy with some members of the team moving up to play for the Arthurlie Football Club’s junior team.

Doug Law, managing director at Persimmon Homes West Scotland, said the community initiative was a way of supporting people across every city, town and village where the company works.

He said: “We are very proud to hand over this donation to Arthurlie Juniors Football Academy. The club has made great strides in the last 3 years and we are delighted to be supporting it as it continues to grow.”

The Persimmon Community Champions initiative is a national programme where charities and groups can apply for funding up to the value of £1,000 to match money which clubs and groups have already managed to raise for themselves.

Doug added: “We’ve made it really simple to apply for funding, and we’re urging groups and charities to apply for next month’s donation by completing an online form at www.persimmonhomes.com/charity.”